inhale

One of the benefits of living near the coast in a warm climate was the ready availability of beaches.  Unfortunately for Atsuko and Marissa this was common knowledge so, for fully half the year, they had to deal with overcrowding and tourists whenever they wanted to go swimming.  Eventually, between the congested parking lots and small children, they decided that enough was enough and started doing laps in a public pool within driving distance of the shore that was ignored to the point of nearly being abandoned.

Nearly.

She had a very large, open apartment; he wouldn't have been surprised if it took up the entire floor.  This, naturally, raised questions about who she was, how she was able to afford it, and several other, more audacious issues. "So what's going on?" he asked. "What happened yesterday?"

"I have a theory," she replied. "You know the quote 'all the world's a stage?'"

"Of course.  'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players,'" he recited.

"Right, that-"

This was going to be one of those days.

A squirt emitted from an invisible hole in the cup, just as Teywa tried to take a sip from it. Smelly brown liquid, a terrible parody of a coffee, splattered all over her white shirt, ruining it forever.

On the background an ear-cutting sound repeated itself over and over, along with hits and bumps. Another unfortunate soul tried to get some coffee from one of those ancient wedding machines. They still used paper currency here, would you believe?